Soil is a natural habitat for several important insect pathogenic fungi which play a key role in regulating
populations of soil dwelling insect pests. Forty soil samples were collected during 2012-2013 from different agro
ecosystems at Duhok governorate were screened for the presence of soil dwelling entomopathogenic fungi using
four different selective isolation media. The four isolation media were prepared by modifying previously
prepared DOC2 medium and a selective medium based on the use of Cetyletrimethyl ammonium bromide
(CTAB) with oatmeal agar (OT) as a basal medium. The percentage occurrence of fungi and number of detected
species was significantly affected by the type of isolation medium. The least number of recovered species (5
species) was on DOC2 medium, whereas, the highest number (14 species) was displayed by CTAB+OT
medium.